Experiments used in the Junior Scientist Course
Simulate a vaccine response
| Description | Person “A” gets the vaccine (water and bicarb solution), then both person “A” and “B” receive small pox (vinegar). Use the indicator strips to see who survived, “red means dead.” |
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| Equipment | Vinegar, water and bicarb solution (with a drop of food colouring), pH indicator strips, 2x 15 mL tubes labelled A and B, plastic syringe, pipette. |
Create a lava lamp
| Description | Pipette coloured vinegar into a tube containing oil and baking soda. Watch vinegar sink down to the baking soda and bubble back up to the surface! |
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| Equipment | 1 50mL plastic tube containing baking soda and oil, vinegar, food colouring, pipettes, chuck bucket. |
DNA extraction
| Description | Smash a strawberry in a tube and mix it with the soap solution, after heat the strawberry soap solution, squirt ethanol into the tube and watch the DNA float to the top. |
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| Equipment | 95% ethanol on ice, thawed strawberries (if frozen), 1x 50 ml tubes, hot water bath, soap solution (dish wash liquid, salt, and water), ice block stick, tweezers. |
Testing your anatomical knowledge
| Description | Place paper organ cut-outs on the outline of a person. |
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| Equipment | Outline of a person, paper organ cut outs, plastic bag, blue tac. |
Design an alien based on its ‘DNA’
| Description | Pull DNA sequences from an envelope instructing what alien characteristics to draw. |
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| Equipment | Paper, coloured pens, “DNA” paper strips, DNA code guide, envelopes. |
Making poo
| Description | Simulate how the body makes poo with the help of gut bacteria. Try to make a healthy poo! |
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| Equipment | Poo worksheets of different types of poo, flour “gut bacteria”, Weetabix, poster paint (R, Y, B), small plastic bags “the gut”, small plastic cup “the toilet”, plastic syringes, water. |
Grow bacteria
| Description | Each student swabs an agar plate with something from the classroom to see what bacteria grows. The class can create an agar plate with a fingerprint from each student. Students can also look at the effect of anti-bacterial. Look at the bacteria grown on agar plates the following week. |
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| Equipment | Agar plates, swabs, sterile water, filter paper cut outs, penicillin. Grow bacteria, wrap agar plates in plastic and contain in plastic bag, gloves. |
How well do you wash your hands??
| Description | Look at glitter bug lotion on hands under UV light, wash hands, and place back under UV light to see how effective students can wash their hands. |
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| Equipment | UV box, Glitterbug lotion, running water. |
Osmosis potato
| Description | Observe the water released from potato cells. |
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| Equipment | Sugar, potato, tray, |
Simulate blood transfusion
| Description | See which blood types can receive blood from the other using coloured water. Type O (clear water), Type A (blue water), Type B (red water), and Type AB (purple water). |
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| Equipment | Food colouring (red, blue), water, plastic syringes, plastic cups, 4x 50 mL tubes, chuck bucket for coloured water, blood typing worksheet. |
Looking at cells down microscopes
| Description | Students preparing and stain slides with cheek cells (from cheek swab) and plant cells (from an onion). Teaching staff create slides with blood cells for students to view. Students can also look at bugs. |
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| Equipment | Cotton buds, onions, slides, coverslips, methylene blue, tweezers, and microscopes. Lancet, swabs, slides, cover slip, alcohol wipe, saline, plaster. Prepared bug slides. |
Making cells out of playdoh
| Description | Students create the cells they see down microscopes out of playdoh. |
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| Equipment | Playdoh, cell printouts. |
Chromatography
| Description | Students colour the bottom of a napkin and watch the colour “climb” up the napkin once dipped in alcohol. |
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| Equipment | Coloured felt pens, alcohol, napkins, and beaker. |
Recreate how rainclouds work
| Description | Drop coloured water into a shaving foam “cloud” that sits at the top of a beaker over clear water. Once the cloud fills with water, it begins to make coloured “rain” into the clear water. |
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| Equipment | Food colouring, shaving cream, beakers, pipettes, water. |
Temperature insulation and cooking science
| Description | Determine which material insulates temperature best. Raw eggs can be added to the different water temperatures to explore the science of cooking. |
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| Equipment | Pots and lids, insulators (e.g. paper, foil, foam, cotton), boiled water, chilled water, beakers, raw eggs. |
Enzymes and pH
| Description | When hydrogen peroxide is combined with a yeast solution (room temp and yeast solution), it creates a bubbly reaction due to the catalase in the yeast. Students perform the reaction using varying amount of each product to observe changes in the reaction. Students also add bicarb and/or lemon juice to adjust pH of the yeast solution and alter how well it reacts with the hydrogen peroxide to explore how pH affects catalase. |
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| Equipment | H202, yeast, bicarb, lemon juice, water. |
